The UK-India Free Trade Agreement has changed the maths for British businesses looking east. Since the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) came into force on 15 July 2026, opening an office, Global Capability Centre (GCC), or technology hub in India has become easier and more cost-effective for UK companies. But while the trade paperwork just got simpler, provisioning IT infrastructure services in India still involves timelines, approvals, and local processes that catch first-time entrants off guard.
The UK-India Free Trade Agreement, which came into force on 15 July 2026, creates a more favourable environment for UK businesses looking to expand their operations in India. But establishing an India office or GCC still requires careful planning of local IT infrastructure, connectivity, hardware and ongoing support
This checklist walks UK business leaders, COOs, and IT decision-makers through every stage of an India office build-out — from choosing a city to switching on secure, fully connected IT infrastructure services on launch day — and shows what your IT infrastructure setup in India will actually involve.
What the UK-India Free Trade Agreement (CETA) Means for UK Businesses
The UK-India Free Trade Agreement officially came into force on 15 July 2026.[1] Under the deal, 99% of Indian goods entering the UK and 90% of UK goods entering India become duty free or see reduced tariffs over time, with bilateral trade expected to grow by £25.5 billion a year in the long run.
For companies planning technology operations, two provisions matter most:
The Double Contribution Convention (DCC). The Double Contributions Convention (DCC), which came into force alongside CETA on 15 July 2026, provides rules to help eligible employees temporarily assigned between the UK and India avoid paying social security contributions in both countries at the same time. For qualifying detached workers, the period can extend to up to 60 months, subject to the agreement's conditions.
Easier professional mobility and services access. CETA's chapters on services and digital trade smooth the movement of professionals and the cross-border delivery of technology and IT infrastructure services between the two markets.
Together, these provisions may encourage more UK businesses to explore opportunities and expand their technology footprint in India.
Why More UK Companies Are Setting Up IT Operations in India Now
Even before the FTA, India had become an established destination for Global Capability Centres, supporting a wide range of business and technology functions, including software, cloud, cybersecurity, and IT infrastructure services.
Three forces are now converging for UK companies:
- Cost efficiency with real capability. Skilled engineers in Bengaluru or Hyderabad cost a fraction of London rates, from a talent pool among the deepest anywhere.
- The GCC model has matured. UK banks, insurers, retailers, and software firms now build captive centres in India rather than outsourcing, keeping control of quality, security, and IP.
- The FTA removes friction. Reduced double social-security costs, smoother professional mobility, and digital trade provisions shave real money and time off an India entry plan.
The strategic case is strong. Whether your launch feels smooth or chaotic comes down to how well you plan the foundations — the IT infrastructure services layer that everything else sits on.
Step 1: Office & Network Infrastructure Checklist
This is where UK expectations and Indian realities diverge most. In India, delivering the same level of IT infrastructure that a UK office may already have in place can involve additional local coordination and approvals — all manageable, if you start early.
Connectivity & ISP Provisioning
- Order your primary internet leased line (ILL) the day the lease is signed — provisioning commonly takes 2–8 weeks in India, depending on city, building, and existing fibre entry.
- Contract a secondary line from a different ISP on a physically diverse path for redundancy.
- Budget time for the building NOC (No Objection Certificate) and right-of-way approvals ISPs need before pulling fibre into the building — a step that barely exists in UK office moves.
Structured Cabling & Wi-Fi
- Install Cat6 or Cat6A structured cabling, labelled, documented, and terminated to an organised comms room.
- Deploy enterprise Wi-Fi 6/6E with a site survey, with separate VLANs for corporate, guest, and IoT traffic, and size everything for your two-to-three-year headcount.
Power Backup & Sanctioned Load
- Apply to the local electricity distribution company for adequate sanctioned load — the officially approved power capacity for your premises. Under-applying is a common, disruptive mistake.
- Install online UPS capacity for all IT loads, plus confirmed diesel generator backup; in many Indian cities, genset cover is non-negotiable for business continuity.
An experienced local partner can run these IT infrastructure workstreams — connectivity, cabling, power — in parallel, which is usually the difference between a six-week fit-out and a four-month one.
Step 3: Server, Storage & Networking Hardware Checklist
On-Premises Servers vs Hybrid Cloud
Decide early what runs where. Most UK companies land on hybrid: compliance-bound and latency-sensitive workloads on-premises; collaboration suites, SaaS, and burst capacity in cloud. For the on-premises layer, weigh new against refurbished enterprise hardware — refurbished Dell EMC, HPE, and Lenovo servers sourced within India can cut capital costs by 40–70% and arrive in days, not weeks.
Core Networking Equipment
Size the network core of your IT infrastructure services for growth, not just day one:
- Enterprise firewalls (in HA pair) sized for your bandwidth and VPN load.
- Core and access switches with PoE headroom for phones, cameras, and access points.
- Routers or SD-WAN appliances managing dual-ISP failover and the link to UK HQ.
- A proper comms room: rack, cooling, environmental monitoring, clean cable management.
Backup & Disaster Recovery
- Follow a hybrid 3-2-1 approach: local backup for fast restores plus cloud or off-site replication for disaster recovery.
- Test restores before go-live, and document RPO/RTO targets aligned with UK group standards.
Import from the UK or source locally?
Shipping UK-purchased equipment means customs clearance, duties, compliance checks, and lead times past a month — even post-FTA, since tariff cuts phase in and hardware still clears normal customs. Sourcing or leasing within India through an established IT infrastructure solution provider is faster, simpler, and locally warrantied — so many UK firms ship laptops to global spec but procure the servers, storage, and networking core of their IT infrastructure services in India.
Step 4: Security, Compliance & Data Protection
Securing your IT infrastructure in India has two dimensions: meeting Indian law and meeting your own UK group standards.
- India's DPDP Act. The Digital Personal Data Protection Act governs personal data processed in India. Build DPDP compliance in from day one — consent management, purpose limitation, breach-notification readiness.
- UK GDPR alignment. Data flowing back to the UK must still meet UK GDPR requirements, so map cross-border data flows early.
- Network security basics. Next-generation firewalls, site-to-site VPN or SD-WAN encryption to UK HQ, endpoint protection, MFA everywhere, and VLAN segmentation.
- Physical security. Access control, CCTV over entrances and the server room, and visitor management — standard for client audits and ISO 27001.
Treat security as part of the build; retrofitting security controls after deployment can be far more disruptive than designing them into the infrastructure from the beginning
Step 5: Choosing Your IT Support Model
Once live, who keeps your IT infrastructure running? UK companies typically weigh three models:
- In-house IT team. Full control, but you are hiring in an unfamiliar market, and a small team struggles to cover networking, servers, support, and vendors alone.
- Outsourced local partner. Contracting IT infrastructure management services from an established Indian provider gives you skilled engineers and coverage from day one, without hiring risk.
- Hybrid. A lean in-house IT lead who owns strategy and UK alignment, backed by a partner delivering hands-on IT support in India for infrastructure, maintenance, and field engineering.
For most new entrants, hybrid wins. The India-specific tasks above — building NOCs, sanctioned-load applications, ISP escalations, local procurement — are hardest to manage from a desk in London. A partner with experience delivering IT infrastructure services across multiple office builds can help streamline timelines, support a day-one-ready office, and continue providing ongoing IT support.
Common Mistakes UK Companies Make When Setting Up IT in India
- Underestimating approval and provisioning timelines.The biggest cause of delayed launches is ordering the leased line "closer to the date." Start connectivity and power applications at lease signature.
- Assuming a UK-based IT admin can run everything remotely. Remote monitoring of IT infrastructure services works; remote procurement, landlord negotiation, ISP escalation, and installation do not. Someone must be on the ground.
- Not planning for import and customs delays.Firms shipping racks of equipment from the UK without a customs strategy watch go-live dates slip while hardware sits in clearance.
- Skipping power planning. Assuming UK-style grid reliability leads to under-specified UPS, no generator allocation, and an office that goes dark in the first outage.
- Treating security as phase two. DPDP compliance, segmentation, and access control are far cheaper to design into your IT infrastructure than to retrofit later.
How Zaco Supports UK Companies Expanding into India
Zaco has spent over three decades delivering IT infrastructure services to enterprises, with a presence across India, the United Kingdom, and the UAE — so it supports both ends of the move: planning with your UK team, delivering with engineers on the ground in India.
For a new India office, Zaco provides:
- <Hardware supply and deployment. New and certified refurbished servers, storage, and networking equipment from Dell EMC, HPE, IBM, Lenovo, and Cisco — sourced and delivered locally, avoiding import delays, with installation included.
- Office IT build-out. End-to-end coordination of connectivity, cabling, racks, firewalls, and network go-live — day-one-ready IT infrastructure services.
- Ongoing maintenance and support. Third-party server, storage, and network maintenance at a fraction of OEM costs, backed by multi-city, rapid-response IT support in India.
- Managed operations. Proactive monitoring and SLA-backed IT infrastructure management services that let a lean UK IT team oversee the India estate without a large local department.
As both a hardware specialist and an IT infrastructure solution provider, Zaco gives UK companies one accountable partner from procurement through go-live to steady-state operations.
Conclusion
The UK-India Free Trade Agreement has made 2026 a genuinely practical moment for British companies to set up in India: tariffs are falling, mobility is easier, and the Double Contribution Convention has removed a real cost barrier to moving key people. What the FTA cannot do is compress India's on-the-ground timelines for delivering IT infrastructure services — leased lines, building approvals, sanctioned load, and hardware logistics still reward companies that plan early and execute locally.
Work through the checklist, start connectivity and power applications the day you sign the lease, and decide between in-house support and IT infrastructure management services before go-live. If you want experienced engineers handling the India side while your UK team stays focused on the business, talk to Zaco's Global IT Support team about planning the IT infrastructure services behind a smooth, day-one-ready India launch.